SEO and Social Media Marketing (SMM) are tools that should be used to achieve desired business goals and objectives. Using SEO and SMM without a tangible objective is like trying to sail without the wind.
At the very beginning of a search and/or social engagement, before any strategy has been developed, a solid business objective(s) should be agreed upon between the client and the ad agency.
Here are a few samples of potential objectives:
- Attract more qualified visitors
- Increase sales
- Increase conversion rate
- Increase sales for a particular product
- Introduce new product(s)/service(s)
- Create brand advocates
- Create brand awareness
- Influence the tone of conversation around your brand
- Replace negative search results with positive ones
The development of the business goals should be a collaborative effort between the client and search marketing teams. Often times, I see agencies rely solely on the client to provide the objectives. One of the biggest complaints that I hear from brands is the lack of ideas coming from the agencies they’ve hired to handle their online advertising.
One of the ways that I approach defining objectives is by conducting a content gap analysis. If I can identify a major gap between what consumers are searching for and the actual content on a Web site, then I can better throw out ideas for business objectives.
Consider the following example:
- Step 1:I’ve signed a contract to conduct an SEO and social media campaign for an existing tax preparation website (taxwebsite.com)
- Step 2: After completing a high-level keyword analysis, I discover that there is high demand for both online tax preparation and specific tax information content(i.e., tax laws, state tax laws, foreclosure disclosure on tax forms, etc…)
- Step 3:Upon analysis of taxwebsite.com, I find content pertaining to online tax preparation but no content around informational tax themes
- Business Objective Recommendation: taxwebsite.com must become a top of mind resource for consumers searching for tax information
Once the business objective(s) of the SEO/SMM engagement have been clearly defined, a core set of key performance indicators (KPIs) should be identified. These KPIs will help measure the overall success of the campaigns being conducted. Finally, once the KPIs have been established, an effective SEO and social media strategy can be crafted that specifically targets the stated goals and objectives.
Hiring an agency or SEO/SMM consultant who can bring these skills to the table will determine whether or not your site will find success online through organic and social search.
